I had the unfortunate experience of finding out what happens when
minivans and Ford Foci collide in August of this year. My car got
nailed (read: totaled), so I got thrown into the market for a new car.
The Focus had always served me well (I've owned two of them), so I
naturally went back to Ford for a third. I had the same constraints
that were in place when I purchased my first two cars: it had to be
reasonably cheap (<$20k), get good gas mileage (>30 MPG), and have a
stick shift. Generally, the last requirement is a pain...Ford seems to
think that I only want a stick shift if I want a car with the
bare-minimum in accessories, or that I want one that has all of them.
It's a bit of a pain to find a Focus that is decently equipped and has
a stick. Remembering my pain, I was open to looking at other vehicles.
As you'd expect, the dealership that I initially went to took that and
ran with it by introducing me to the Ford
Fiesta.

I didn't purchase a car from that dealership, but I did end up
purchasing a metallic lime sedan model from C and C Ford in Horsham
(never again, btw -- would not recommend). Here's my experience so far:

Appearance

The car looks pretty awesome! Some positive bits:

The color is awesome

Sitting in the front makes you feel like you're in a cockpit

The red glow of the buttons in the dark looks pretty slick

The body has a pretty unique shape. One friend described it as a
'bullet'

Some cons:

None. I have yet to find anything about the car that is
aesthetically unpleasing

Ride/Feel

Once again, I'm pretty satisfied here. Pros:

The clutch has a much tighter feeling than my 2007 Ford Focus

The stick has a nice "click" into each speed

The engine has a nice hum

The seat hugs me nicely

Cons:

I only have 120-ish HP. Hills and acceleration (when above 40 MPH)
sucks. My friend had trouble merging my car into highway traffic
because he wasn't anticipating the lack of power

Reverse is a pain. For some reason, it's always a pain to get into
reverse without grinding or having the false feeling of being
in-gear. It's fairly annoying.

Entertainment Sytem

This is my first vehicle with MS
Sync. At first I was pretty
impressed, but that kind of faded away. Pros:

Built-in USB port (VERY NICE!)

Bluetooth audio streaming (VERY NICE!)

Bluetooth phone tethering (for voice and data)

The mic for the driver is mounted above their head and sounds very
nice. No one knew that I was driving when I was talking to them.

My car decided that it no longer wanted to pair with my phone. Car
forums suggest that a hard reset or that disconnecting the batter is
the best fix. Eww, Ford.

The sound system lacks on the lower end at any volume above 12 or 13
(the stereo goes up to 30)

The volume dial lies (see the next paragraph)

Switching songs is slow when using a USB/Bluetooth device as input

When I hit the "voice command" button, there's a 1 in 20 chance that
the music will stop, but the unit will not prompt me for input and
will not accept voice commands until I power cycle the unit

Before moving on, I thought that I should take some time to elaborate on
the pros and cons here. I was pretty blown away by Sync at first. Once
it indexed my iPod Touch, it worked really well. It blew me away! Then
I started noticing flaws. For whatever reason, switching tracks was
taking forever. My in-dash CD player was switching tracks 2-4 times
faster than the MP3 player (note: this might be an iPod interface
problem). Then, my phone stopped pairing with my car. My roommate's
phone was also paired, and we were able to confirm that it wasn't just
my phone...it didn't like anybody's phone! Lastly, I cited complaints
about the sound. I have the 'upgraded' sound system. It's ok, but I
can't imagine what the stock system must be like! The low end fades
away pretty quickly, which stinks. Also, the car's volume doesn't
actually go to 30 as I noted in the bullet list. It stops getting
louder after 18. I'm pretty sure that the sound quality in my Focus was
on-par with the Fiesta *and* was louder. So much for an upgrade.

Other Thoughts

I've really come to love my car. The vehicle is an awesome piece of
machinery -- I definitely made the right purchase. However, I have a
few negative things to express as well.

First and foremost, I experienced a pretty scary moment while driving
one day. While driving through Temple University's campus, I attempted
to hit my accelerator while leaving a stop sign. I was surprised by an
obstruction. I managed to limp the car to the curb and to reach down to
find out what was stuck on my pedal. It turned out to be a piece of air
duct. This could have been really scary if it had fallen under my break
pedal (I'm sure you can imagine). I haven't had time to do so, but when
I finally get it repaired, I intend on reporting this to Ford.

Lastly, I was delivered a car that had window switches that didn't work.
From the driver's panel, I'm able to put down my back driver's side
window, but unable to put it back up. I have to reach back to that door
and use its switch to put it up. It's a minor inconvenience, but I
think it was easily preventable. The dealership spent time detailing
the car before delivering it to me, so why not test some of the basic
functions? I'm sure I'll complain more once I have to actually take the
time to get it fixed.

Overall, I think it's a great car. If I had to do it all over again,
I'd buy the same car (though from someone else -- I blame the dealership
for some of my issues).